Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (3rd ed, 1768, vol II).djvu/119

 Ch. 7. perty is frequently in one man, while the appendage or ervice is in another. Thus Gaius may be eied as of fee, of a way going over the land, of which Titius is eied in his demene as of fee.

fee-imple or inheritance of lands and tenements is generally veted and reides in ome peron or other; though divers inferior etates may be carved out of it. As if one grants a leae for twenty one years, or for one or two lives, the fee-imple remains veted in him and his heirs; and after the determination of thoe years or lives, the land reverts to the grantor or his heirs, who hall hold it again in fee-imple. Yet ometimes the fee may be in abeyance, that is (as the word ignifies) in expectation, remembrance, and contemplation in law; there being no peron in ee, in whom it can vet and abide; though the law coniders it as always potentially, exiting, and ready to vet whenever a proper owner appears. Thus, in a grant to John for life, and afterwards to the heirs of Richard, the inheritance is plainly neither granted to John nor Richard, nor can it vet in the heirs of Richard till his death, nam nemo et haeres viventis: it remains therefore in waiting, or abeyance, during the life of Richard. This is likewie always the cae of a paron of a church, who hath only an etate therein for the term of his life: and the inheritance remains in abeyance. And not only the fee, but the freehold alo, may be in abeyance; as, when a paron dies, the freehold of his glebe is in abeyance, until a ucceor be named, and then it vets in the ucceor.

word, heirs, is neceary in the grant or donation in order to make a fee, or inheritance. For if land be given to a man for ever, or to him and his aigns for ever, this vets in him but an etate for life. This very great nicety about the inertion of the word "heirs" in all feoffments and grants, in order to vet a fee, is plainly a relic of the feodal trictnes: by which we may remember it was required, that the form of the donation hould Rh